New fraud trial for Daphne Campbell's son prompts outburst on House floor

TALLAHASSEE — An appeals court on Wednesday ordered a new Medicaid fraud trial for the son of state Rep. Daphne Campbell after determining a judge didn’t allow the jury that convicted him to deliberate properly.

Gregory Campbell was convicted on multiple Medicaid fraud charges in 2013, sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $460,893.58 in restitution stemming from an Internal Revenue Service investigation into his mother, a Democrat from North Miami who was never criminally charged and always maintained her innocence.

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When she learned her son’s appeal had succeeded, Campbell was so overjoyed that she started yelling that her son had been “exonerated” and praised Jesus so loudly on the floor of the state House of Representatives that proceedings were stopped briefly.

She could also be heard yelling “my Jesus, it was one vote. They did this to me, it was one vote. I am vindicated.”

Other lawmakers said her fellow Miami state Rep. Carlos Trujillo, a Republican and former prosecutor, informed Campbell her son had not been cleared, but that the Third District Court of Appeal had simply reversed the charges and remanded the case back to the Miami-Dade County court for a new trial. Trujillo did not return calls seeking comment.

Campbell continued to praise God and was escorted from the floor. She is running for state Senate against Democratic Sen. Gwen Margolis in the newly drawn Senate District 38.

Her explosion of emotion came as the House was debating a $1 billion tax cut package, one of its top priorities.

Members initially thought Campbell was having a medical issue, and Rep. Cary Pigman, an Avon Park Republican who's a doctor, rushed to her side. As he did, Rep. Matt Hudson, a Republican from Naples who was at the speaker’s rostrum, asked if she was alright, and informed members to not congregate in the back of the chamber.

Campbell, who did not return a call seeking comment, was moved into a room off the House floor, and was joined by Democrats Sharon Pritchett of Miami Gardens and Hazelle Rogers of Lauderdale Lakes. Kathy Mears, chief of staff to House Speaker Steve Crisauflli, followed to check on the situation.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case through the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, could not be reached for comment to see if it planned to try the case again.

According to Wednesday's appeals court ruling, Circuit Judge Bronwyn C. Miller erred during jury deliberations when she repeatedly rejected defense counsel’s request for what’s known as an “Allen charge,” an instruction for jurors that urges them to try harder and come up with a verdict more quickly.

One of the jurors had expressed, in writing, discomfort with at least one of the charges, but Miller wanted the jury to continue deliberating, according to the appeals court. At one point, after the jury reported guilty verdicts, the juror in question was asked if this was her verdict and she said “not really.”

Miller ordered the jury back into deliberations and, when it found Campbell guilty of four charges, the juror in question said she agreed with the verdict. The appeals court, however, said that “under these circumstances, we agree that when this juror sent her second note indicating both an unwillingness to continue and an inability to reach a verdict (having already renounced an earlier verdict reached during deliberations) that an Allen charge should have been given and that anything less was impermissibly coercive.”

This story has been updated to clarify that Rep. Pigman is not the only medical doctor in the Florida House. Rep. Julio Gonzalez is as well.